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10
our human mortality returns, the deadly influence of
over-crowding, defective ventilation, and the concentration
of animal poisons. It is a source of astonishment
how the trade of a dairyman, constantly suffering heavy
losses from death amongst his cows, can possibly be
profitable. It would be a source of astonishment no
less great, were we to find the milk yielded by cows kept
as too many of these wretched animals are, pure and
fitted to serve as a staple article of food. It is no exaggeration
to say, that much of the bone and sinew, the
health and strength of the rising generation depends
upon the supply of good milk. There is no other known
article of food which is capable by itself of nourishing
the human frame and maintaining it in health. Next to
bread, there is no article which it is of equal importance
to have pure. The prevalence of scrofula, rickets, consumption,
is largely accounted for by the want of good
milk in infancy. Whether milk containing all the
elements of nourishment in the highest perfection, can
be produced from cows confined in close stalls in towns,
and fed on brewers grains, may reasonably be doubted.
But if town-dairies are to be tolerated, it is clearly
necessary to enforce all reasonable means to secure the
health of the cows, and to prevent them from becoming
a nuisance and an injury to the surrounding inhabitants.
Since I first adverted to the unequal pressure of
pauperism in my preliminary report, an immense body
of facts in illustration of this subject has been collected.
The question has warmly engaged the attention of the
public. The expediency of levying an uniform